Commuting hell

[Jacana]

Not sure where else to put this, but had to share in case people were considering a car commute in the DMV...

This is DC at 9 pm with oh, maybe an inch of snow. These people (including a number of our friends and former colleagues) have been stuck for hours in a "massive traffic jam." Poor souls. I wish them all safe if not fast travels. What a nightmare.

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[fallstoclimb]

This happens once every winter in DC.  I am generally someone who tries to be compassionate about the non-choices people often find in their lives, but I do not have it in me to feel bad for the vast majority of people who signed up for a 1-hour commute down I-66 so they can have the fancy DC job and the McMansion and then are stunned when ice shuts the whole thing down and they can't get home until 1am.  (Yes, I'm sure there are also low income people stuck in this who honestly cannot afford to live closer, and who have no flexibility in their work schedules, and I do send them well wishes.  Of course their commute wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for all the McMansioners)

I hope no one was hurt.  The city will handle the massive blizzard headed inbound better than this surprise dusting, because everyone will stay home.

Signed, a former DC-er

[onlykelsey]

This happens once every winter in DC.  I am generally someone who tries to be compassionate about the non-choices people often find in their lives, but I do not have it in me to feel bad for the vast majority of people who signed up for a 1-hour commute down I-66 so they can have the fancy DC job and the McMansion and then are stunned when ice shuts the whole thing down and they can't get home until 1am.  (Yes, I'm sure there are also low income people stuck in this who honestly cannot afford to live closer, and who have no flexibility in their work schedules, and I do send them well wishes.  Of course their commute wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for all the McMansioners)

I hope no one was hurt.  The city will handle the massive blizzard headed inbound better than this surprise dusting, because everyone will stay home.

Signed, a former DC-er

I'm a New Yorker, but I 100% agree with that.  Being f-ing pissed about the way the Metro has degraded in the last 5 or 10 years makes sense.  Getting pissed about something that (for the vast majority of people) is 100% in their control makes no sense. 

[Jack]

I've seen worse:



(Atlanta Snowpocalypse 2014)

[Jacana]

@fallstoclimb, yeah unfortunately that used to be myself and my husband, because all we could afford was a tiny neglected fixer-upper townhouse all the way up 270 during the crash. Everything further in was expensive as all hell and renting was pricey. I was essential personnel too; man I was stuck in that hell more times than I'd like to remember. So glad we moved. And as you say, tomorrow's storm will hopefully be taken more seriously.

@onlykelsey, grew up on LI myself, swore I'd never move back to NY. I hear it's getting worse there too.

@Jack, wow that is definitely bad. Hope you werent stuck in it. I've heard Atlanta is horrible with ice/snow. We do get much much worse in DC every major snowfall. The sad part was this particular event was just an inch or so of snow. It should not have happened. The evening commute merged into the morning commute with no let up in traffic.

[therethere]

That actually doesn't look too bad... Can you tell I lived in DC for awhile? So glad to be done with my 5 mile 1 hour commute everyday! Every holiday we'd drive to New England which should be a 7 hour drive. We would have to leave at 10PM, drive overnight, and it would still take 12 hours. Ugh.

It's like the universe never wants you to leave that hell hole.

[Jack]

@Jack, wow that is definitely bad. Hope you werent stuck in it. I've heard Atlanta is horrible with ice/snow. We do get much much worse in DC every major snowfall. The sad part was this particular event was just an inch or so of snow. It should not have happened. The evening commute merged into the morning commute with no let up in traffic.

At the time, I was working at a job 30 miles from my house (I live fairly close to the middle of that map, and commuted up I-85 to the northeast.) However, my previous job was as a contractor to GDOT where my primary responsibility was managing traffic incidents. Between that and the fact that I'm an Atlanta native, I knew better than most everyone else (apparently including GDOT management, unfortunately!) how bad it was going to be. I predicted the debacle the day before -- although even I didn't realize it would be that bad -- and informed my coworkers I'd be working from home. They didn't believe me, and laughed at me for it.

When I went back to the office several days later (after the ice melted), I was the one laughing...

On one hand, I almost wish I were still working at GDOT during the emergency; it would have been interesting. On the other hand, I probably would have been stuck working literally for a 24-hour shift or something, which would have sucked.

That actually doesn't look too bad... Can you tell I lived in DC for awhile? So glad to be done with my 5 mile 1 hour commute everyday! Every holiday we'd drive to New England which should be a 7 hour drive. We would have to leave at 10PM, drive overnight, and it would still take 12 hours. Ugh.

It's like the universe never wants you to leave that hell hole.

Hey, at least you guys have Acela!

[fallstoclimb]

@fallstoclimb, yeah unfortunately that used to be myself and my husband, because all we could afford was a tiny neglected fixer-upper townhouse all the way up 270 during the crash. Everything further in was expensive as all hell and renting was pricey. I was essential personnel too; man I was stuck in that hell more times than I'd like to remember. So glad we moved. And as you say, tomorrow's storm will hopefully be taken more seriously.

I promise I am picking on DC and not you, but here's the thing --- there IS affordable housing closer in.  People just rule it out for a variety of reasons -- schools, safety, the "right neighborhood," etc.  Think the ungentrified parts of the city (granted, these areas just keep getting smaller), the undesirable areas of MoCo, or vast swaths of PG County.  I think most DCers think they have this false nonchoice of a forced long commute when that's really not true.  I'm sure many think the commute is worth it to send your kids to the best schools (or whatever it is that draws them to the exurbs), which, fine, but I won't feel sorry for those people when they get caught in a mess like last night! 

I used to do it too, though.  I lived in the suburbs on one side of the city and worked in the suburbs on the other.  I wish I had lived IN the city, but at the time we chose to be near my husband's job -- at least one of us had a short commute, and I could read on the metro.

DC does tend to sap the soul.  I'm so glad I left.  And it is a damn shame they've let the metro degrade so much -- what a joke.  At least biking is exploding in the city.

[Chris22]

I promise I am picking on DC and not you, but here's the thing --- there IS affordable housing closer in.  People just rule it out for a variety of reasons -- schools, safety, the "right neighborhood," etc.  Think the ungentrified parts of the city (granted, these areas just keep getting smaller), the undesirable areas of MoCo, or vast swaths of PG County.

Yeah, those dumbfucks picking areas to live based on things like "schools" and "safety".  What idiots.

[MsPeacock]

 I would choose a longer commute over bad schools or dangerous neighborhood. I work in Bethesda and close housing is way way way outside my price range. I happen to work very early and live in a more reasonably priced area so my commute is only about 8 miles. There is a serious lack of good public transit in this area given the population density. If I have to drive 3 miles to get to the metro, due to lack of direct bus service, then ride the metro through 20 stops, metro being extremely unreliable, and pay parking and metro fares - yeah, I am going to drive to work because it saves me 3 hours per day from public transport and saves me $20 per day in parking fares (and I still have to own a car anyhow). oh, and lose time with my kids and have increased childcare costs to cover the 3 more hours per day. Let's not pretend this is just because selfish people want to live in McMansions with fancy schools.

Last night was a horrible confluence of factors: bad weather prediction, too much emphasis on the storm coming tomorrow which caused everyone to overlook Wednesdays forecast, a long spell of below freezing weather which caused snow to be melted and very quickly refrozen on roads, storm starting right at rush hour, failure of OPM and others to issue early closing to get people off the road, lack of road preparation, a whole bunch of drivers who have no experience with snow, horrible congestion even on good days, and a city that is unfortunately structured so that people have no choice but to spread out (lack of urban high density housing for families). The weather warnings weren't issued until midday, and as a result there wasn't much time for anyone to wrap up and get out of work early.

Many people ended up being stuck overnight in their cars. Given the cold weather this is extremely dangerous. It can happen to anyone regardless of the length of their commute, their choice not to live in an "undesirable" area, or the realities of life with children/job etc.

[MsPeacock]

I promise I am picking on DC and not you, but here's the thing --- there IS affordable housing closer in.  People just rule it out for a variety of reasons -- schools, safety, the "right neighborhood," etc.  Think the ungentrified parts of the city (granted, these areas just keep getting smaller), the undesirable areas of MoCo, or vast swaths of PG County.

Yeah, those dumbfucks picking areas to live based on things like "schools" and "safety".  What idiots.

Exactly.

[Jacana]

I disagree, fallstoclimb, that was not our experience. We both worked in Bethesda (myself near downtown, him just off the beltway near the bridge in Potomac). When we bought in 2009, there were no affordable options close in other than condos, which all had ridiculous monthly fees and their own set of risks. Schools were not a big factor. Our budget was <200k, and we refused to go over what we could realistically afford. We looked for months in Bethesda, Rockville, Silver Spring, Gaithersburg. And for the record, we looked at houses in the bad neighborhoods too. We simply kept getting outbid. The leftover properties were generally not eligible for VA loan due to extreme disrepair. No McMansions here.

 No point going further east to PG, our commute would be just as bad (we were renting on the edge of MoCo and PG in Silver Spring, that commute sucked). No point going south, NoVa was even worse. Potomac is million dollar estates. We simply didn't have the money. Where we ended up was ~1050/month for P&I, tax, home ins, and HOA. That would not be possible close in. Yes we could have rented for way more money. No we didn't want to.

@ MsPeacock, oh man that was exactly me 5 years ago, right down to the early shift. Public transport more than doubled my commute. But I could become a SAHM and we paid off all our student loans fast because we made that decision to buy affordable housing. I hope you fare well with tomorrow's storm!

[MsPeacock]

I disagree, fallstoclimb, that was not our experience. We both worked in Bethesda (myself near downtown, him just off the beltway near the bridge in Potomac). When we bought in 2009, there were no affordable options close in other than condos, which all had ridiculous monthly fees and their own set of risks. Schools were not a big factor. Our budget was <200k, and we refused to go over what we could realistically afford. We looked for months in Bethesda, Rockville, Silver Spring, Gaithersburg. And for the record, we looked at houses in the bad neighborhoods too. We simply kept getting outbid. The leftover properties were generally not eligible for VA loan due to extreme disrepair. No McMansions here.

 No point going further east to PG, our commute would be just as bad (we were renting on the edge of MoCo and PG in Silver Spring, that commute sucked). No point going south, NoVa was even worse. Potomac is million dollar estates. We simply didn't have the money. Where we ended up was ~1050/month for P&I, tax, home ins, and HOA. That would not be possible close in. Yes we could have rented for way more money. No we didn't want to.

@ MsPeacock, oh man that was exactly me 5 years ago, right down to the early shift. Public transport more than doubled my commute. But I could become a SAHM and we paid off all our student loans fast because we made that decision to buy affordable housing. I hope you fare well with tomorrow's storm!

I fortunately do not have to work tomorrow, schools are all cancelled already. I plan to sleep in. Then I I am hosting a sleepover for five 9 year old boys, who maybe snowed in with me all weekend. Lol. Should be awesome.

I have wine.

Moved here in 2008 from Texas. I didn't know the area at all but heard that Bethesda was "nice." I did a real estate search for $500,000 and Bethesda and got zero listings. I kept thinking I must be spelling BEthesda wrong. Same thing happened with Chevy Chase. I had to do a major adjustment of what a half million dollars would buy in terms of a house.

[fitfrugalfab]

@fallstoclimb, yeah unfortunately that used to be myself and my husband, because all we could afford was a tiny neglected fixer-upper townhouse all the way up 270 during the crash. Everything further in was expensive as all hell and renting was pricey. I was essential personnel too; man I was stuck in that hell more times than I'd like to remember. So glad we moved. And as you say, tomorrow's storm will hopefully be taken more seriously.

I promise I am picking on DC and not you, but here's the thing --- there IS affordable housing closer in.  People just rule it out for a variety of reasons -- schools, safety, the "right neighborhood," etc.  Think the ungentrified parts of the city (granted, these areas just keep getting smaller), the undesirable areas of MoCo, or vast swaths of PG County.  I think most DCers think they have this false nonchoice of a forced long commute when that's really not true.  I'm sure many think the commute is worth it to send your kids to the best schools (or whatever it is that draws them to the exurbs), which, fine, but I won't feel sorry for those people when they get caught in a mess like last night! 

I used to do it too, though.  I lived in the suburbs on one side of the city and worked in the suburbs on the other.  I wish I had lived IN the city, but at the time we chose to be near my husband's job -- at least one of us had a short commute, and I could read on the metro.

DC does tend to sap the soul.  I'm so glad I left.  And it is a damn shame they've let the metro degrade so much -- what a joke.  At least biking is exploding in the city.

I live 5 minutes away from D.C. on the Arlington side and we have an awesome school system in my county. I do live in a small home though in order to afford it (500 sq. ft.)

[fallstoclimb]

Ok I do fully admit I was just in a cranky mood yesterday. Sorry y'all.

As an aside, I was just walking through my suburban neighborhood to get to a doctors appointment, and a lady in a car pulled up next to me and asked if I was walking on purpose or if I needed a ride. Haha I think the blizzard generosity has started - let's hope it continues once everyone digs out their parking spaces....

(Also, so sad that someone walking is such a rare sight here that they felt the need to offer a ride!)

[therethere]

I think its great they asked if you needed a ride. Crappy weather in DC means lots of fancy sports cars in the ditch. Or lots of cars stuck on an uphill because some idiot decided to stop instead of use momentum to go up. Fact of life down there. The last big snowstorm like 6 years ago my husband slid off the off ramp along with about 20+ other cars and had to walk the entire way home. We then had to walk over 2 days later to retrieve it. I bet he wished someone had asked him for a ride!

[Jack]

I promise I am picking on DC and not you, but here's the thing --- there IS affordable housing closer in.  People just rule it out for a variety of reasons -- schools, safety, the "right neighborhood," etc.  Think the ungentrified parts of the city (granted, these areas just keep getting smaller), the undesirable areas of MoCo, or vast swaths of PG County.

Yeah, those dumbfucks picking areas to live based on things like "schools" and "safety".  What idiots.

Exactly.

Yep, both of those things are overrated:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/06/07/safety-is-an-expensive-illusion/

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/12/avoiding-ivy-league-preschool-syndrome/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/02/16/if-i-ran-the-school-things-would-be-different/


By the way, I have a business trip to Columbia, MD (via BWI) next Wednesday/Thursday. Should I be worried, or do y'all think stuff will be back up-and-running by then?

(I'm starting to wonder if I should be shopping for 16" studded tires for my folding bike! Of course, for all I know Columbia's trails will be under 2 feet of snow and they won't really help...)

[Chris22]

I promise I am picking on DC and not you, but here's the thing --- there IS affordable housing closer in.  People just rule it out for a variety of reasons -- schools, safety, the "right neighborhood," etc.  Think the ungentrified parts of the city (granted, these areas just keep getting smaller), the undesirable areas of MoCo, or vast swaths of PG County.

Yeah, those dumbfucks picking areas to live based on things like "schools" and "safety".  What idiots.

Exactly.

Yep, both of those things are overrated:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/06/07/safety-is-an-expensive-illusion/

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/12/avoiding-ivy-league-preschool-syndrome/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/02/16/if-i-ran-the-school-things-would-be-different/

There's "Ivy League Preschool Syndrome" and then there's finding a public school where most kids there are going to have the opportunity to excel.  Good schools doesn't mean everyone is going to Harvard, but it means to me that most kids are set up to go to college. 

The safety link doesn't even come close to being about the issue here. 

[fitfrugalfab]

I promise I am picking on DC and not you, but here's the thing --- there IS affordable housing closer in.  People just rule it out for a variety of reasons -- schools, safety, the "right neighborhood," etc.  Think the ungentrified parts of the city (granted, these areas just keep getting smaller), the undesirable areas of MoCo, or vast swaths of PG County.

Yeah, those dumbfucks picking areas to live based on things like "schools" and "safety".  What idiots.

Exactly.

Yep, both of those things are overrated:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/06/07/safety-is-an-expensive-illusion/

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/12/avoiding-ivy-league-preschool-syndrome/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/02/16/if-i-ran-the-school-things-would-be-different/


By the way, I have a business trip to Columbia, MD (via BWI) next Wednesday/Thursday. Should I be worried, or do y'all think stuff will be back up-and-running by then?

(I'm starting to wonder if I should be shopping for 16" studded tires for my folding bike! Of course, for all I know Columbia's trails will be under 2 feet of snow and they won't really help...)

Honestly the roads will probably be good to go by Tuesday so you  should be fine.

[fallstoclimb]

By the way, I have a business trip to Columbia, MD (via BWI) next Wednesday/Thursday. Should I be worried, or do y'all think stuff will be back up-and-running by then?

(I'm starting to wonder if I should be shopping for 16" studded tires for my folding bike! Of course, for all I know Columbia's trails will be under 2 feet of snow and they won't really help...)

I am really not sure.  Hogan just told Marylanders to have supplies for a week.  I'm pretty sure the schools will all be closed for the full week -- that happened in both 2010 and 1996.  That said its hard to imagine what could prevent them from having all the roads plowed by Tuesday?  But its been a long time since we got this much snow....

I think you'll need a fat bike to do any biking around here unfortunately!!

[coolistdude]

Man, I remember one day when my commute took an extra 5 minutes. The wind was totally against me, there was even rain, cars were everywhere, and I think my brakes were slightly pressed. Wait, are we not talking about commuting via bicycle?

[Guses]

Man, I remember one day when my commute took an extra 5 minutes. The wind was totally against me, there was even rain, cars were everywhere, and I think my brakes were slightly pressed. Wait, are we not talking about commuting via bicycle?

Pffft.... Mine was when my chain snapped. The second 5 miles stretch sure felt longer than the first!

[coolistdude]

Man, I remember one day when my commute took an extra 5 minutes. The wind was totally against me, there was even rain, cars were everywhere, and I think my brakes were slightly pressed. Wait, are we not talking about commuting via bicycle?

Pffft.... Mine was when my chain snapped. The second 5 miles stretch sure felt longer than the first!

Full disclosure, I haven't been commuting biking for too long. Is there a way to determine if your chain is about to snap?

[Jack]

Man, I remember one day when my commute took an extra 5 minutes. The wind was totally against me, there was even rain, cars were everywhere, and I think my brakes were slightly pressed. Wait, are we not talking about commuting via bicycle?

Pffft.... Mine was when my chain snapped. The second 5 miles stretch sure felt longer than the first!

Full disclosure, I haven't been commuting biking for too long. Is there a way to determine if your chain is about to snap?

Maybe -- you can always inspect it for cracks and such, but I wouldn't count on it. If you're really that worried about it, though, just carry a chain tool and extra links (replacement chains usually need to be shortened when they're installed, so you'll have leftovers) with you.

Or just carry a chain tool so that you can remove the broken link and put the rest back together, and then stay on the smaller sprockets (or bypass the derailleur entirely) if necessary.

[GuitarStv]

How does one snap a chain?  Is it a technique thing (pedalling really hard while cross chaining, grinding away in hard gears), or a luck of the draw thing?  I've never come across this problem and am a big guy who does a fair amount of riding.

[golden1]

Yeah, the first serious commute snow of the year is coming up tomorrow near Boston and I am not looking forward to it at all.  You would think Bostonians would be prepared, but it's like people forget how to drive in the snow.

[Guses]

How does one snap a chain?  Is it a technique thing (pedalling really hard while cross chaining, grinding away in hard gears), or a luck of the draw thing?  I've never come across this problem and am a big guy who does a fair amount of riding.

I only have myself to blame, I failed to notice that I had pushed the "rod" too far in when I changed my chain. I don't carry a chain tool with me... :(